Obama had a good case for POW swap

I've been waiting for someone in the White House to offer a cogent defense of President Obama's decision to swap five Taliban fighters for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held hostage in Afghanistan for five years.

So far, that hasn't happened. Instead, the arguments put forth by the Obama administration have been a disjointed response to a GOP-led attack on the president's action, rather than a strong and forceful defense of Obama's exercise of his duty as commander in chief to bring home an American prisoner of war.

One argument by the president's team was that Obama had to act quickly because Bergdahl was in bad health. Another was that the speed of the negotiations forced the president to make the trade without complying with a law that requires him to notify Congress 30 days in advance of removing a prisoner from the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, where the five Taliban were held. Neither explanation amounts to an affirmative defense of the president's action.

Obama would have been better served by an explanation from the press secretary (not the president) at a White House briefing on Bergdahl's release that went something like this:

"In a tradition that is as old as war itself," the press spokesman says, "the president has ordered a prisoner swap in the waning days of America's involvement in the Afghanistan conflict to ensure that we leave no one behind."

Next, the spokesman pre-emptively says: "The president took this action without giving Congress a 30-day notice because when a life hangs in the balance, war-time decisions often require swift action."

Then the press secretary seeks to defuse questions about Bergdahl's loyalty: "While this ought to be a time of national celebration, and not recrimination, the president is aware of the questions that have been raised about the events that led to Sgt. Bergdahl's capture.

"What we know for certain is that Sgt. Bergdahl was a prisoner of the Taliban, not a house guest. And what we learned from the American POWs who came home at the end of the Vietnam War is that some were forced to do things they later regretted in order to survive. In due time, the Army will gain a better understanding of the events surrounding Sgt. Bergdahl's capture and imprisonment. For now, the president is happy to report that he did what every parent of a servicemember and loved one expects of him: He brought home our POW."

Sure, even if Bergdahl's recovery had been handled in this way, congressional Republicans - and some Democrats - still would have pounced on Obama for not giving them a 30-day notice. But a more proactive defense of Obama's decision might have had his critics, rather than White House officials, scrambling to explain themselves.

Bringing American POWs home is one of the most important duties of a wartime president.

DeWayne Wickham, dean of Morgan State University's School of Global Journalism and Communication, writes for USA TODAY.

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Obama had a good case for POW swap

I've been waiting for someone in the White House to offer a cogent defense of President Obama's decision to swap five Taliban fighters for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held hostage in Afghanistan